This summer, an investigative series by The New York Times exposed how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has worked systematically in countries around the world to fight life-saving policies to reduce tobacco use. The Chamber’s strategies have included directly opposing countries’ tobacco control policies, pitting countries against each other in costly international trade disputes, and seeking to influence trade agreements to benefit tobacco companies.

In a statement today, U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, and Sheldon Whitehouse reacted to recent reports by The New York Times exposing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has worked systematically in countries around the world to help the tobacco industry fight life-saving measures to reduce tobacco use.

The Times story examines the U.S. Chamber’s three-pronged approach to fighting back against life-saving measures to reduce tobacco use like smoke-free indoor public places, graphic warning labels on tobacco products, restrictions on tobacco marketing and increased tobacco taxes.

The U.S. Chamber’s tactics, deployed in countries ranging from Nepal to the Philippines to Uruguay, include:

A promising step for tobacco-free events in Indonesia

Editor
Jun 21, 2013

Showing that it’s possible to tune tobacco out of the music industry, this year’s Java Rockin’land music festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, will take place without one of its most infamous acts – the tobacco industry. Java Rockin’land – like many music festivals in Indonesia – has traditionally been sponsored by tobacco companies trying to lure a new generation of smokers. The concert attracts young music fans from across the country – but this year, the tobacco industry won’t be on stage.

Lawmakers must choose: Protect kids or protect industry profits

From Idaho comes the latest evidence that the tobacco industry will go to great lengths — and spare no expense — to protect its profits and defeat measures proven to keep kids from smoking.

According to a report in the Idaho Falls Post Register, the Altria Group, the nation’s largest tobacco company and parent of Philip Morris USA, spent more money lobbying Idaho officials last year than any other group. Altria spent $165,076 lobbying in the state in 2011 — it’s the only group to spend more than $100,000, and its total is 82 percent more than the next biggest spender.

Tobacco Company Comes Under Fire for Green Claims

So it's truly outrageous that the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, owned by Reynolds American, is running magazine ads promoting its Natural American Spirit cigarettes as "eco friendly." It's called greenwashing — making deceptive environmental claims to improve the image of a controversial product or company.

Philip Morris International chief's comment that tobacco is "not that hard to quit" only hints at company deception

Editor
May 12, 2011

Philip Morris International CEO Louis Camilleri made headlines at the PMI shareholders' meeting in New York on Wednesday, when he falsely claimed that "it's not that hard to quit" smoking cigarettes.

It was a revealing glimpse of the real Philip Morris at an event usually orchestrated to present the world's largest private tobacco company in the best light even as its products and practices spread death and disease worldwide.

New Study: tobacco companies spiked cigarettes with diet aids to hook people worried about weight

Editor
May 4, 2011

It's been nearly a century since Lucky Strike first used the slogan "Reach for A Lucky Instead of A Sweet" and decades since the early Virginia Slims advertising campaign depicted women who smoke as independent, stylish, sexy — and of course slim — to market to women and girls.

But slogans and sophisticated images weren't the only tricks in the tobacco industry's scheme to keep people smoking.

According to a new study published in The European Journal of Public Health, the companies added appetite suppressants to cigarettes "to enhance the effects of smoking on appetite and body weight" — and to stoke smokers' fears of gaining weight if they quit.

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By signing up, you may also get occasional alerts about opportunities to fight Big Tobacco nationally. (See Our Privacy Policy)